this is bbc news. the headlines at 11:00pm: the government narrowly survives an attempt by pro—eu conservative mps to change its post—brexit trade strategy. in an apparent u—turn, donald trump says he misspoke at yesterday's news conference with vladimir putin, when he appeared to defend russia over his own intelligence agencies, regarding claims of russian meddling in the 2016 us presidential election. isaid i said the word would instead of wouldn't. the sentence should have been i don't see any reason why i wouldn't, or why it wouldn't be rush hour. —— why it wouldn't be russia. millions in north—west england face the prospect of water rationing. as the dry weather continues, the north—west is set to be imposed the chilling 999 call made by former suffolk ukip

councillor stephen searle, who's been found guilty of murdering his wife. good evening. theresa may has, for a second night, narrowly survived defeat in the commons over brexit. the government saw off an amendment to the trade bill, brought by pro eu conservatives, which would have kept the uk in a customs union with the eu if no deal is agreed on a frictionless trade arrangement before january next year. it follows the government caving in to amendments by brexiteer mps yesterday. but the government has had to abandon its attempts to force parliament to go into their summer recess early after labour, snp and some conservative mps were planning to vote against it. the prime minister was accused

of suggesting the idea only to stop tory rebels having time to stir up any more trouble against her. meanwhile, the official brexit campaign group vote leave has been fined £61,000 and referred to the police for breaking electoral law. more on that in a moment. but first, here our deputy political editor, jon pienaar, reports on the day's events at westminster. what does a cabinet in crisis look like? come in and take a look! crisis? what crisis? forget brexit for a moment, theresa may was keen to talk up some good news. i can report that the unemployment and employment figures show that employment has hit a new record. hear, hear. a slightly awkward silence. brexit is the biggest issue by far.

ministers like the new brexit secretary see angry remainers barring his path or trying to. 0rder. ayes to the right, 301, the noes to the left, 307. tonight, byjust six votes the government dodged a damaging defeat. former remainer tories and labour tried and failed to force ministers to seek to join the european customs union if nothing else is agreed, against all of their past promises. it has emerged tory mps or warned defeat would have led to a vote of no confidence in the government. would have led to a vote of no confidence in the governmentm would have led to a vote of no confidence in the government. it is u nfortu nate confidence in the government. it is unfortunate that we didn't win. 0ur amendment was supportive of the white paper and the pm's position

but wanted to guarantee a customs union if the deal was not successful. so i feel like i have been loyal to my prime minister throughout the week. it is others who have to look at themselves and ask themselves whether they have been. that is not what we promised the electorate. that won't deliver brexit and we would never have free trade agreements. the main benefit of brexit. and i know that if we lost the vote tonight that would have triggered immediate confidence motion in the government. the government has planned a route to brexit but it is hard going. today the word has gone out from ministers, give compromise their chance. allow the brexit plan to move on. as we chance. allow the brexit plan to move 011. as we leave chance. allow the brexit plan to move on. as we leave the european union we want to provide continuity for businesses, consumers and for trading partners. this bill sets the scene for the uk's independent, sovereign trade policy. we will approach that with optimism and confidence. i think the government

is in confidence. i think the government isina confidence. i think the government is in a considerable muddle. they didn't start with a plan and they haven't really got a plan that convinces half of their own cabinet and certainly a number of their own backbenchers as we have seen today. so much persuading to do, so little time. around 80 local tory chairman we re time. around 80 local tory chairman were called into number ten too and many grassroots members are said to feel betrayed with brexit. the idea that government contemplated the nuclear option of inviting a vote of no—confidence if it was beaten tonight tells you how precariously this is balanced. theresa may's brexit plan has cost her to maxine cabinet ministers and despite tonight's victory it is on a knife edge with her party deeply split and labour prepared to exploit those divisions. it is not easy to see how theresa may can get any plan through parliament or break that rakes it in deadlock. —— break the brexit deadlock. —— break the brexit deadlock. ministers blocked a plan to adjourn for summer break this

week. labour and tory mps opposed it so no extra time to take a breath. brexit is still a work in progress and time is running very short. a little bit earlier, we heard more on this. that was the critical issue about the customs union. it was to the wire. it was going to be a potential show of strength from the remain wing of the conservative party, they said they could muster the numbers to defeat the government on this. a crucial plank of the government policy, keeping the uk in a customs union in the event of no trade deal being struck. but i think if the vote had not gone the government's way it would have been a huge political crisis. so much so that we understand that if mps voted against the government on this, it could precipitate a vote of no—confidence in the government, so i think it is a sign of how seriously were taking

that threat from the remain wing of the conservative party, who are so incensed by what happened yesterday in the commons on another piece of legislation, when the government backed down to the brexiteer rivals and absorbed the brexiteer amendments into the bill. so this was if you like a chance for the remain —— remainers but they did not have the numbers. they thought that they might have, they were confident prior to the vote. it was always going to go to the wire and when we spoke with the likely suspects if you like before the vote there were discussions going on until the last minute. we even heard negotiations going on between the remainer putting forward one of the amendments and the government minister on the green benches, so in the middle of debate, there was was trading going on. government minister saying we will amend something in the lords, and if you ta ke something in the lords, and if you take out this word that stephen

hammond, the mp involved, saying no, iam not hammond, the mp involved, saying no, i am not involved in that. so discussions going right to the wire. yesterday it seemed the remainers had more on their side and they did not manage to get the defeat. there we re not manage to get the defeat. there were labour mps who voted with the government that saved their skin. were labour mps who voted with the government that saved their skinlj mentioned the other vote whether government did lose on an amendment with regards to the regulation of medicines travelling between the eu and the uk. what is the significance of that? significant because it is just the second defeat the government has faced in the course of the brexit legislation. in that senseit of the brexit legislation. in that sense it is significant it did not go their way. it was not as critical to the brexit strategy as the issue of the customs union. it does go further than the government has outlined it wanted to do on medicines. it is designed to keep medicines. it is designed to keep

medicine flowing freely between the uk and the eu after brexit. the government has said in response to this amendment that they are looking forward to reflecting on it and will seek to revisit the issue in the house of lords. so i think it is not the end of the story on that one either. there are still opportunities to go back to that issue in the lords. it is a victory for doctor philip leach who the amendment but certainly nowhere near on the scale that it would have been if the remainers had won the amendment on the customs union. the official brexit campaign group, vote leave, has been fined £61,000 and referred to the police for breaking electoral law. the electoral watchdog said vote leave, which was supported by senior politicians, including borisjohnson and michael gove, exceeded its spending limit by funnelling extra money through another pro—brexit youth group. vote leave says the report is politically motivated and inaccurate. vicki young reports. taking its message around the country, supported

by high—profile politicians like borisjohnson and michael gove. let's vote leave, take back control. vote leave was the official pro—brexit campaign group during the eu referendum. it masterminded a famous victory, but the independent elections watchdog says it broke the law. parliament set a remit for the electoral commission, which is about making sure there is transparency and accurately of how the money spent is reported and where money comes from. and that's what we're looking at today. and it's for us to make sure that where we do find people have broken those rules, we make that clear. i'm voting to leave the european union because... the commission found that vote leave linked up with a youth brexit group, beleave, run by darren grimes. he's been fined £20,000 and referred to the police. the investigation centred on a donation of more than £675,000 made by vote leave to this smaller group. the commission said this should have counted towards vote leave's £7 million spending limit because the two groups were working closely together.

it means vote leave exceeded its limit by almost half a million pounds. my name's ann. i'm calling from the vote leave campaign. but vote leave says it's confident the findings will be overturned because the report contains what it calls ‘false accusations'. it's a very one—sided report. we wish they'd followed due process, and had they done so, just like they gave us the all—clear on the first two occasions they investigated us, they would have given us the all—clear again on the third investigation. shamir sanni was a volunteer for vote leave who raised concerns about spending. these institutions, like electoral commission, are built to protect the mother of all parliaments, they're built to protect british citizens, they're built to protect what and who we are as british citizens. and any mp that chooses to undermine that is perverting democracy. laws on spending during elections were put in place by parliament to ensure fairness and transparency. vote leave have broken those rules

and that's sparked anger in an already furious brexit debate, with some even calling for a rerun of the referendum. we're talking about deliberate cheating. we cannot have confidence that this referendum was secure, and it should be rerun. the faux outrage that we are hearing from members of all sides of this house, some of whom have now left, is nothing to do with a breach of the rules by the leave campaign, it is due to the fact that they lost. they're not representing the people. they lost that referendum, despite the fact that they overspent, themselves, by millions of pounds. downing street said britain's vote on its eu membership was a legitimate democratic exercise. calls to do it all again are likely to fall on deaf ears. vicki young, bbc news, westminster. in a stunning u—turn, president trump says he misspoke yesterday in his press conference with the russian president. he has come in for a storm of criticism from political friends and foes alike for supporting president putin's assertion that

russia did not interfere in the us election, over american intelligence's repeated assertions that he did. now president trump says he got his words wrong and meant the opposite. chris buckler has the latest from washington. with president trump, nothing comes without a little drama. even what some might regard as an apology. without a little drama. even what some might regard as an apologylj have some might regard as an apology.” have full faith in our intelligence agencies. 0ops, they turn off the lights. after so much outrage, he had little choice but to shed some light on what he said in helsinki, as he appeared to support vladimir putin's claimed that russia didn't meddle in america's presidential election. i would like to clarify just in case it wasn't. in a key sentence in my remarks i said the

word would instead of wouldn't. president putin, hejust word would instead of wouldn't. president putin, he just said word would instead of wouldn't. president putin, hejust said it is not russia. i will say this, i don't see any reason why it would be. the sentence should have been i don't see any reason why i wouldn't, or why it wouldn't be russia. what donald trump did yesterday is betrayed women and men of the cia and the fbi and the american public and the fbi and the american public and that is why i use the term that this is nothing short of treasonous. former intelligence chiefs, political opponents and even several senior members of his own republican party lined up to criticise the president. and question his claim that it president. and question his claim thatitis president. and question his claim that it is better to forget the past when there are real present day concerns about russian activities. understand that desire and the need to mend relations, that is understandable, but russia is a manaus that does not share our values. should president trump be

rebuked? that was a question he didn't answer. germany is a captive of russia. republicans were embarrassed by the contrast of the combative trump who angrily challenged old allies that the nato summit compared to the president who appeared all too cosy with president putin. with a shower of heavy criticism president trump has taken cover under the simple claim he misspoke but voters in virginia seemed more than a little unsure what exactly american foreign policy is. it is like we are being friendly with people we shouldn't be and friendly with people we should be. president trump could have done a betterjob. president trump could have done a better job. also president trump could have done a betterjob. also i realise he is not, you know, a politician.” betterjob. also i realise he is not, you know, a politician. i feel like we are in the dark on things and we have been given twists from the president as far as this is true and this is not true. and with

investigations still ongoing into allegations of interference and collusion, it is notjust the white house that can shed light on what russia might have been responsible for. the willis is therefore us in washington. dave —— david willis of. how has this torn down with the people? -- gone down. it comes down toa simple people? -- gone down. it comes down to a simple slip of the tongue. the problem is he also called vladimir putin strong and powerful and that is why some senior republicans are already seeking to distance themselves on his latest remarks. the senate majority leader mitch mcconnell telling reporters that a lot of us know what happened in 2016 and it had better not happen again. a reference to russian meddling in the 2016 residential election, something that vladimir putin denied

and donald trump seemed to believe his denial yesterday, only for that to be reversed. the senate minority leader, chuck schumer, said that president trump's remarks were 2a hours too late and i think a lot of the people may feel the same way and the people may feel the same way and the damage had been done. we are talking about a very unpredictable, but is this somehow look slightly different to you in terms of other things that have arisen in recent times? yes it does. it appears to make the president look that he is blind to the views of almost anybody else in the country, that russia is an old foe and should continue to be treated with great caution. he had to a nswer treated with great caution. he had to answer questions yesterday about a vladimir putin potentially having something on him, blackmail

material. so incredulous are people here with the cosying up, if you like, of the us president is russian counterpart. have been those that eight who have been seeking to put other safeguards in place, referring to more money to protect election security, calls for tougher sanctions on russia and a bipartisan bill to protect the special counsel robert microns —— robert mueller. president trump might hope he is off the hook, reading through those remarks to reporters today, that he has a long way to go to rebuild confidence. i wonder where that leaves relations between white house and the republicans on capitol hill. very good question. of course, there are other mid—term elections coming up, the battle over the confirmation ofa up, the battle over the confirmation of a supreme courtjustice. that will force republicans to coalesce

into some kind of unity, in terms of the mid—term elections, we could see more and more of them raking ranks of depending on what happens between now and then, a very long time in donald trump's politics. david willis in washington. the headlines on bbc news: the government narrowly survives an attempt by pro—eu conservative mps to change its post— brexit strategy. in an apparent u—turn, donald trump says he must break at yesterday's news co nfe re nce says he must break at yesterday's news conference with vladimir putin, will when he appeared to defend russia regarding claims of russian meddling in the 2016 election. as the dry weather continues, 7 million people in north—west england are facing a hose ban the. up to seven million people will be affected by the first hosepipe ban of the summer in england.

there's already one in place in northern ireland. united utilities says a temporary ban for homes in the north—west from the 5th of august will "safeguard essential supplies". other water companies across england say they have adequate supplies and have no plans to impose similar bans. danny savage reports. haweswater in cumbria, united utilities' biggest reservoir. falling water levels here have triggered the hosepipe ban. the lack of water has even exposed the remains of the village flooded to create this vast storage facility. unions have today criticised the company for losing too much water through lea ks. they say they are tackling it. we take it very seriously, and we work round—the—clock, whatever the weather, on fixing leaks, and actually we've met our regulatory leakage target for the last 12 years, but we know that we can do more, which is why our aim is to reduce that even further. the ban affects nearly the whole of north—west england where united utilities has

seven million customers. it will come into effect on 5th august, unless there is prolonged rainfall between now and then, which looks unlikely. an awful lot of reservation is needed. there hasn't been in an area of pretend which it usually comes down in abundance. daniel is an award—winning lawn expert, he is concerned it will damage his income. i was concerned it will damage his income. iwas 0k concerned it will damage his income. i was ok untiljune orjuly, to bring the ban in, the lawns are looking good and if that is cut off,

80% of my business i can't do. sport pictures like this old screen are exempt. in edgeworth this afternoon, ijoined a group of players who accept the restrictions of. i'm not cross that we're short of water, i'm happy we've had such hot sunshine, and if shortage of water is a by—product then we'll just have to be careful. does it make you cross that it's coming in? no, not at all. i think it's the right thing to do. i think we all have to do our bit. there is already a hosepipe ban in force in northern ireland, and the republic, where blisteringly hot weather has melted roads and seen bowsers in use. united utilities' other big site in the lakes is thirlmere. a 92—mile—long aqueduct from here feeds supplies direct to manchester. danny savage, bbc news. suffolk police have leased the 999

call. stephen searle had claimed he had been defending himself after his wife attacked him with a night. a jury wife attacked him with a night. a jury found him guilty of murder. caroline davies has been across the case of. they lived in stonemarket in suffolk and their marriage had been under strain afterjune. anne discovered her husband was having an affair with one of their son's partners. they believe that led to stephen killing his wife, he was an ex—royal marine and they belief he used his military training and had knowledge of a hold, they know she died after pressure to her neck. this particular phone call is quite chilling. so quite a chilling phone call. 0n the night this happened, stephen searle had said his wife had a disagreement with and she tried to stab him in the stomach, he claimed he feared for his life and that was why he had to struggle with but the jury only took three and a half hours to find him guilty of her murder.

one of their sons said not only has he lost his mum but he's lost his dad too, and stephen searle will be sentenced on wednesday. statue of margaret thatcher could be erected in her hometown. 0fficials in westminster were worried that the bronze statue would the target for vandalism stopping now councils in lincolnshire said it will to attract more visitors to the town. where there is discord, may we bring harmony. where there is error, let there be true. she led the country for more than 11 years, but some

believe that her hometown has not properly acknowledged the achievements of her. is town is very proud of its heritage and i think it isa proud of its heritage and i think it is a fitting tribute to have statue of margaret thatcher here. lots of people come here, they know it is her birthplace and come to look and we are trying to grow the visitor economy and i think it is a very important part of doing just that. there is a statue of margaret thatcher in the houses of parliament and there is a bust too in the falkland islands. but the towns of also honoured former prime ministers with statues of. so how do people in the eye and lady's town feel about having a tan and a half or bronze statue honouring her legacy, as was a lwa ys statue honouring her legacy, as was always the case with margaret thatcher, opinion is divided. always the case with margaret thatcher, opinion is dividedm always the case with margaret thatcher, opinion is divided. it has been ignored here.” thatcher, opinion is divided. it has been ignored here. i think it is horrendous. it doesn't surprise me because of this town because this

town worships her because they were not affected by it, they were not affected by the decisions she made. no, no, no. very proud because she isa no, no, no. very proud because she is a first lady prime minister. so it is very good. you wouldn't mind the statue? not at all. it is a waste of money. she was never an mp here, couldn't wait to get out. put it somewhere where she was an mp.” am enjoying this! supporters to bring this to grantham says it won't be costing a penny since it is funded privately. when you say she has a divisive legacy, we think about strikes, the taxes. those people who say she has a divisive legacy are correct. we want to memorialise her and be the place to tell that story. we want to be the one to demonstrate that grantham is the place you want to come if you

wa nt to the place you want to come if you want to know everything you need to know about her. it is now down to local plan is to decide whether the statue should stand alongside sir isa newton, attribute to someone who had a clearly defined political centre of gravity. as we have been hearing, large parts of the north are undera hearing, large parts of the north are under a hose pipe band. that heat wave means that parts of yorkshire could be heading for a record—breaking harvest of young grapes. they're growing as if they're in california or perhaps the loire valley, but these are east yorkshire grapes, basking in the heatwave, bursting from every plant. these are the hooligans of the vineyard. this 10—acre vineyard near to beverley is still a few months from harvest but the signs are it will be a bumper crop.

the heat has been fantastic both for new plants and existing ones. we got off to a slow start with the miserable winter but this has made up for it and long may it continue. this is a growing industry. there are now around 750 commercial vineyards in the uk producing 500 million bottles of wine a year. winemakers say global warming is helping them thrive. when they haven't had to look for water all winter. .. some crops are struggling with the dry conditions. their roots don't run deep enough to access water. this season could prove disastrous for some arable crops, especially later drilled crops. grapes are different. most established grapevines have root systems which go down five or six metres, maybe twice that in hotter countries, so the established vines have had their roots in water all the way through. monitoring the colour of plants

from above is just one way to assess how grapes are doing ahead of the autumn harvest. we have had vines that have grown astronomically, there seemed to be loads of bunches compared to last year.